Policy Action Network interview STRIVE on research uptake

Annie Holmes explains STRIVE’s approach to ‘knowledge into action’.

This month’s newsletter from the Policy Action Network in South African (P>AN) includes a case study on communication for research uptake within STRIVE.

Annie Holmes elaborates on some of STRIVE’s strategies for ensuring that its research provides more and better evidence for how structural forces shape people’s vulnerability to HIV.

We have found it useful to start with the question: how could this piece of work make a difference in the world? While a project’s theory of change sets out how to reach the objectives of the intervention and/ or research study, we have to look beyond that point to set the research uptake goal - what’s the best way to ensure the effective use of the (future) findings?

The interview sheds light on a range of ‘behind the scenes’ processes that STRIVE has put in place. Holmes explains her own role and the work of the KiA team within STRIVE as a research consortium, as well as elaborating on the kinds of tools that STRIVE has developed to communicate its research aims so far.

She also responds to debates about the role of 'knowledge into action' within research programmes. The ultimate aim, she argues, is to maximise the impact of research by ensuring that it is relevant to 'end users' and taken up within both policy and practice.